Benny Safdie

Benny Safdie
Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and film editor best known for working with his older brother Josh as a filmmaker. His directorial works include Heaven Knows What (2014), Good Time (2017), and Uncut Gems (2019). Transitioning towards acting, Safdie was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in Good Time and has since taken on roles in films such as Licorice Pizza (2021), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and Oppenheimer (both 2023).
Early life
Safdie was born to Amy and Alberto Safdie; he is Jewish and was raised in New York. He and brother Josh divided their childhood living between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan upon their parents' divorce. He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School and graduated from the Boston University College of Communication in 2008.
Career
Filmmaker
The Safdies' first feature was the 2009 film Daddy Longlegs, which they also wrote the screenplay and edited together. The film was showcased in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, they debuted the documentary film Lenny Cooke at the Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary they became attached to after Cooke approached them to review the footage. In 2014, the pair premiered their next film Heaven Knows What at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In February 2016, the brothers began filming their crime thriller film Good Time. which Benny starred in alongside Robert Pattinson, in New York City. It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Benny, for his performance, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.
Uncut Gems, Josh and Benny's next film, starred Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield and Julia Fox and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. The brothers won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and Benny shared the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing with Ronald Bronstein, with whom he co-edited with on all the Safdie brother films. In December 2020, Showtime gave a series order to a half hour series titled The Curse, which Safdie created alongside Nathan Fielder. They will star alongside Emma Stone in the series, with Josh serving as an executive producer.
Acting roles
In 2017, Safdie began taking on performances not directed by himself or Josh, appearing in a role in the film Person to Person. In 2020, he appeared in Pieces of a Woman,<ref>{{cite web |last1=D'Alessandro |first1=Anthony |title=Sarah Snook & Benny Safdie Join 'Pieces Of A Woman; Jaime Zevallos & Adrienne Lovette Board A Boy Like That |url=https://deadline.com/2020/01/sarah-snook-benny-safdie-pieces-of-a-woman-jaime-zevallos-adrienne-lovette-a-boy-like-that-cast-1202837557/ |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=January 14, 2022 |date=January 21, 2020 |archive-date=January 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122150311/https://deadline.com/2020/01/sarah-snook-benny-safdie-pieces-of-a-woman-jaime-zevallos-adrienne-lovette-a-boy-like-that-cast-1202837557/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and in 2021 had a large supporting role in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza.
In 2022, Safdie appeared in Claire Denis' romantic thriller Stars at Noon, and as Nari in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. In 2023, he starred in the film adaptation Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., and appears as Edward Teller in Oppenheimer'', directed by Christopher Nolan.
Personal life
Safdie is Jewish, his father of Sephardic-Jewish and Syrian-Jewish descent, and mother an Ashkenazi Jew of Russian-Jewish descent. His uncle is architect Moshe Safdie. His cousin is playwright Oren Safdie.
He is married to Ava Safdie (Francis), with whom he has two sons.
Filmography
As filmmaker
As actor
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Red Bucket Films
1986 births
American film directors
American male screenwriters
American film editors
21st-century American Jews
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Syrian-Jewish descent
American Ashkenazi Jews
American Sephardic Jews
American Mizrahi Jews
Boston University College of Communication alumni
Independent Spirit Award for Best Director winners
Living people
Male actors from Queens, New York
People from Manhattan
Mass media people from Queens, New York
Safdie family
20th-century American Sephardic Jews
21st-century American Sephardic Jews